Woman serves up deadly mushrooms to seniors

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KOVR) - A caregiver who served up a deadly batch of poisonous mushrooms to residents is now barred from ever working at a licensed senior care facility again.

The State Social Services complaint investigation determined the poisoning was accidental, but that Lilia Tirdia had been trained to only serve food purchased from a store to residents.

Authorities said Tirdea collected the wild mushrooms from the backyard of the Golden Age Villa Elder Care Facility in Loomis. She then cooked them up for herself and five residents. Four of those residents have since died after eating the toxic mushrooms.

Tirdea said she is now an emotional wreck and is sorry for hurting the very people she was paid to help.

Her son, Vadim Tirdea, spoke on her behalf to KOVR's Steve Large Thursday.

Tirdea said he feared his mother might also die because she had eaten the toxic mushrooms.

"Well it's been really hard and terrible," Tirdea said. "We thought she was going to die because she was really feeling bad but she's recovering and she's feeling better now."

"She knows how to cook," Vadim Tirdea said. "It's not like her first time cooking she just picked them up and cooked them."

Tirdea's son said also his mother feels sorry for the victims and knows she will have to live with the tragedy for the rest of her life.

"I know she feels sorry. I know she can't forget what happened. I know she never thought something like this could happen," her son said.